Excerpts from "Brain salad surgery"

League officials -- well, one in particular, named David Stern, who was present at the game -- tried to screw the Pacers back on Nov. 20

Yeah, because Stern ought to applaud the jokers for cracking some fans, right? Here's the worst one:

Did Brown honestly expect the officials to hit Miller with a charge in the final seconds of what could be one of his last games? I like Hunter a lot, but let's keep it real -- we're talking about Lindsey Hunter. Reggie Miller. Lindsey Hunter.

HE'S NOT FAMOUS OR POPULAR, HE'S JUST AN INSANELY HARD WORKER, HE SHOULDN'T GET ANY CALLS. This guy makes Tommy Heinsohn almost sound unbiased! I decided to take a look at another article of his (remember, he also wrote this, which I explained the crappiness of a few days back) to see if this was a one time thing or not. Guess what? Quotes from here:

The Pistons were in a collective funk for six quarters, from the second quarter of Game 2 through the first three quarters of Game 3, when they scored, in order, 17, 19, 14, 11, 17, 17, and 17 points. During that stretch they looked lethargic, lackadaisical, even, at times, lazy. And they were being outworked by a scrappy Pacers bunch.

Hunter made two great hustle plays Friday night when he blocked Johnson's breakaway dunk from behind in the final minute of the third quarter, and got on the floor to steal the ball from Johnson early in the fourth. McDyess carried the Pistons offensively for a short stretch of the second quarter.

They're lazy... but they had a guy (from their bench) make multiple good hustle plays. Which is it? Keep in mind, this is the same guy that according to the writer, should never get a call late in the game when he's on Reggie. This guy does circular like Scoop Jackson!

Indy might be the deepest team among the final eight. The Pacers go 10, 11 deep, giving Carlisle the luxury of subbing for situations and matchups.

Yeah, just like the Celtics went ten, eleven deep against Indy, right? For matchups? The thing about going ten or eleven deep and it being effective is when you're like Memphis or Dallas and actually have ten or eleven guys on the roster who can make contributions. The Pacers have guys like Pollard (-14.5 Roland Rating this postseason) at ten and Gill at eleven... yeah. The other thing is, those two have combined for 97 minutes so far this postseason, which for them is ten games. Which means that combined and split, counting all games, they average 4.85 minutes a game each. Sorry, guys don't tend to make contributions in that time, especially at their talent levels.

The Pacers' strength clearly is wearing on Detroit. Pacers backup point guard Anthony Johnson says he's noticed that at times the Pistons have been late getting back on defense in transition, something he attributes to the Indy second unit's edge in energy.

I've been trying to find how many fast break points the teams have this series, but my search has been fruitless so far. More on this if I can find the stat.

Moral of the story is, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. I can't wait to see his reaction after the Pistons win this series. I bet it will be something like "REGGIE WAS SCREWED WITHOUT ARTEST". Side note, this is the first time I've ever written sentences in all caps on here. That's how infuriating Michael Smith, a "senior writer for ESPN.com" is. Like Scoop, I have no idea how he got his title.

Also, like Rasheed before game 2 last year and before game 4 now, I also guarantee a victory for the Pistons. You heard it here second.

Is that a 40 spot in the third?Yes, yes it is. You'd think Miami was the team down 3-0. Despite the wacky D, Washington had a shot at this one. Like Boston last round, they just had problems distributing the shots. Jamison scored 10 and took 15 shots. Haywood took 14 shots and had 18 points. Most importantly, Arenas took 17 shots and had 25 points. Respectively, the PPS numbers are 0.67, 1.29 and 1.47. You know where I'm going with this. I think Jamison's great and I still don't think anyone on Miami can guard him that well, but come on. He took 15 shots and didn't get to the charity stripe once! Clearly something's got to change there. As for the Heat, well... Wade's a machine. Nothing more to say on them.